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A review by solaria
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
Did not finish book. Stopped at 35%.
The conflict is so confusing and I had no idea what was happening most of the time in any fight scene. How the society functions or the details of the conflict were either not explained or explained so poorly that I was still lost.
Zetian is an annoying main character because she has no flaws and everyone else does. There is absolutely no nuance to the feminist ideas the book tries to discuss. In the end, despite the books attempts to present Zetian as a feminist warrior who cares for the women around her, she ends up projecting her own internalised misogyny onto other women. Instead of looking at the issue with a bit of introspection, she writes off any other woman as "dumb" or "complicit" in the system instead of realising that they're *all* victims of the patriarchy. Idk, I just didn't care to read another 200+ pages of Zetian blaming everything but herself or failing to consider other perspectives alongside a poorly developed scifi world that I couldn't wrap my head around.
Zetian is an annoying main character because she has no flaws and everyone else does. There is absolutely no nuance to the feminist ideas the book tries to discuss. In the end, despite the books attempts to present Zetian as a feminist warrior who cares for the women around her, she ends up projecting her own internalised misogyny onto other women. Instead of looking at the issue with a bit of introspection, she writes off any other woman as "dumb" or "complicit" in the system instead of realising that they're *all* victims of the patriarchy. Idk, I just didn't care to read another 200+ pages of Zetian blaming everything but herself or failing to consider other perspectives alongside a poorly developed scifi world that I couldn't wrap my head around.